Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader who orchestrated the Balkan wars of the 1990s and was on trial for war crimes, was found dead in his prison cell at the U.N. detention center near The Hague, the U.N. tribunal said Saturday. He was 65.

Fox News said he appeared to have died from natural causes. One reporter mentioned Milosevic had a history of heart problems.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic led his country on a course of conflict and violent disintegration.

During his 13 years of power, the people of Yugoslavia saw their country torn apart, and hundreds of thousands of people die. All that is left now of the former Yugoslavia, which used to consist of six republics, is Serbia and its reluctant junior partner, Montenegro.

Slobodan Milosevic rode out massive waves of protests against his government during the winter of 1996 to 1997.

From the archive

Kate Adie reports on opposition protests (05.12.96) real 56k

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Belgrade and other towns, contesting the authorities' attempts to manipulate the results of municipal elections. Many were brutally beaten by the Serbian police.

After three months of protests, Milosevic finally caved in, returning the so-called "stolen elections" to the opposition.

But not long afterwards, the coalition movement, Zajedno, or "Together", broke up amid reciprocal accusations of betrayal and collaboration with Milosevic.

In July 1997 Milosevic was elected as Yugoslav President by the federal parliament, which was controlled by his supporters.

6
posted on 03/11/2006 4:12:58 AM PST
by GRRRRR
(ACLU, Hitliary and DemonRats are the Enemies of AMERICA and FREEDOM)

Amsterdam - The United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague has rejected a request by Slobodan Milosevic for provisional release from detention in the Netherlands to travel to Russia for medical treatment, the court said on Friday

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